Detention
by Jelsemium
Summary: Detention with Snape is never fun. For this particular detention, he has come up with a classically tedious task that he hopes will keep Potter and Weasley busy for several weeks.


Detention

From a long ago HP ficafest challenge: At Hogwarts, Harry and Ginny have detention together.

A/N: The detention that Snape assigns is based on the numerous fairy tales that I've read in my life.

Ginny was in a hurry. She was out after curfew, but she wasn't worried about losing house points or getting detention. She had already lost twenty points, and the reason she was out after curfew was because she was headed for detention. In the dungeons. With Snape.

Lovely way to spend Saturday night, eh?

"Thank you so much for gracing us with your presence, Miss Weasley," Snape's silky voice always made Ginny wish she were as big as her brothers were and could punch his oversized nose. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting, Professor," she said as mildly as she could. She debated explaining why she was late, but she doubted that Snape cared that she'd cut her leg earlier and had to go to the Hospital Wing.

"That's quite all right, Miss Weasley." From anybody else, this would have sounded pleasant, if not out right gracious. "We've managed to keep ourselves amused."

Ginny's heart sank when she realized the rest of 'we' was Harry Potter. Not that she minded spending time with Harry. It's just that Harry had just been forced to spend extra time with the one person who may actually hate him more than Voldemort did.

Harry was obviously upset. His was holding himself stiffly, with jaw and fists clenched. He was also paler than normal. So pale, in fact, that Ginny could see a spattering of freckles across his nose and she wondered why she'd never noticed them before.

"Well, enough play time, Potter. It's time for the two of you to do something useful," Snape sneered. "Don't worry; I'm well aware of the… limited mental capacities of the two of you. So, I've chosen a… simple task for you."

He lifted a large cauldron, a number six, Ginny estimated and plunked onto the floor in front of the trapped students. "Some idiot placed jars of salt, vials of diamonds and vials of moissanite into this cauldron. They did not put an unbreakable charm on them. And, as you can see, the vials did not survive transport."

Ginny looked into the cauldron with dismay. It didn't take a Hermione Granger to figure out what Snape wanted them to do with the half-full cauldron.

"Do either of you know what moissanite is?" Snape asked.

"Moissanite is silicon carbide. The crystals are usually found in meteorites or dragon's nests," Ginny answered. "They're very rare in the Muggle world, and not exactly common in the wizarding world. Moissanite crystals look like diamonds and are sometimes used in place of diamonds." She felt a little smug that Snape wouldn't be able to take any points off.

"You forgot that moissanite is classified as an element even though it's a compound because their carbon-silicon bonds mimic the carbon-carbon bonds of diamonds," Snape snapped. "Five points from Gryffindor for not being thorough."

She should have known he'd find a reason, or make one.

Harry jerked forward a little, as if he were going to attack. Ginny spoke up quickly. "You want us to sort them, then?" she asked.

"How very perspicacious of you, Weasley. Yes, I want all the crystals separated -- without magic! -- and the diamonds and the moissanite placed into separate cauldrons. You may dispose of the salt as you see fit. You will be serving detention every night until you're finished."

Harry's cheek twitched, but he didn't say anything.

"Nothing to say for yourself, Potter?" sneered Snape. "You may actually be learning something. Not that I will hold my breath. I'll be back in two hours to let you out of the room. Don't spend all of your time snogging. I'm sure the Weasleys aren't quite ready for a half-blood grandchild yet, Potter."

Harry's eyes flashed, but he still said nothing.

"The jeweler's loupes on table are enchanted to show the difference between the salt, the diamonds and the moissanite crystals," Snape added. "I'm sure even you two can figure out how to use them. Unless you really are as stupid as you look. Oh, and Weasley, these are only industrial diamonds. Not worth stealing, even for someone as desperately in need of new shoes as you are." With that, he swept out of the room.

"That disgusting old bat," Ginny snarled. "I hope he gets migraines, hanging upside down at night."

Harry snorted.

Ginny looked at him curiously. "Are you all right?"

Harry shook his head, and then pointed to his throat.

"Are you sick?"

Harry shook his head, and then pointed to the cauldron.

"Don't tell me that Snape fed you a potion to give you laryngitis!"

Harry shook his head again and made a throwing motion. Then he rubbed his face.

"He threw a potion into your face?" Ginny gasped, suddenly realizing those weren't freckles on Harry's face but stains.

Harry nodded.

"That prat! Why did he do that? What did you say?"

Harry mouthed what he'd called Snape. If Ginny's brothers weren't so foul-mouthed, Ginny wouldn't have recognized the word. "I see. I guess that explains the detention, too?" she asked dryly.

Harry nodded.

"When do you get the antidote?" Ginny asked. "When we've finished sorting?"

Harry shrugged.

"Oh, bugger," Ginny said. "I guess it's lucky that I used to play with dolls. I'm used to one sided conversations."

Harry made a wry face.

"Well, let's get to sorting, then."

They picked up the jeweler's loupes and sat down. Harry touched Ginny's arm. When she looked at him, he raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, my cauldron boiled over," she said, pointing to her heavily stained shoes. "I ruined Snape's boots, too."

Harry grinned at her.

The task was easy enough. Pick up a crystal, look at it under with the loupe, toss the diamonds into the copper cauldron, toss the moissanite crystals into the pewter cauldron, toss the salt into the sink or the waste bin.

It was incredibly tedious, though. The diamonds and the moissanite crystals were about the size of grains of rice. The salt crystals were slightly smaller, but not by much. They also had to be wary of the broken vials.

"Snape could have warned us there was broken glass in here," Ginny grumbled. She tossed an especially large fragment into the waste bin.

Harry snorted.

"At least some of the vials didn't break. That's a break for us." She read the label of the unbroken vial and dumped the diamonds into the proper cauldron.

Harry made a non-committal noise.

She pocketed the vial.

Harry made an inquiring noise.

"No point in leaving these for Snape," Ginny said a trifle defensively. "He might find them useful. Besides, Neville wanted something to collect seeds in."

"Hmf," was as close as Harry could come to a comment.

"Where do you suppose he gets salt crystals this big," Ginny asked as she idly tossed a grain of salt into the sink.

Getting no response, she looked at Harry. He was studying the sink with the same expression Hermione got when she was reading her beloved Arithmancy books.

Ginny looked from the sink to Harry and back again. She moved to stand next to him and stared at the sink. "Well? Is the answer to life, the universe and everything going to appear from the plumbing?"

Harry rolled his eyes at her, then walked over to the sink. He reached in and ran his forefinger along the bottom of the sink. Then he looked at Ginny.

"There's nothing there, Harry," she said.

Harry flicked a droplet of water at her.

"Well, yes, we've been putting salt crystals in there for half an hour, but, as you know, salt dis… dissolves… in… water."

She stared at Harry until they both began to grin. Then they checked the cauldron.

"We should be able to dissolve all the salt crystals," Ginny said. "That will leave us with only the diamonds and the moissanite to separate… what?"

Harry was making a motion as if he was pushing something to the ground.

Ginny frowned.

Harry put his hands together, palms down. He raised one hand and lowered the other.

"What goes up must come down," Ginny muttered.

Harry frowned.

"Sorry," Ginny said. "What are you getting at?"

Harry pointed to the cauldron and made the rising and sinking motion again.

Ginny's eyes went wide. "Oh, one will sink, the other will float… diamonds don't float, do they? They're much too dense."

Harry shrugged.

"Well, I suppose we can check which ones float and see, right?"

Harry nodes and he walked over to the shelf to retrieve a smaller cauldron and scooped some crystals out of the big cauldron.

"Oh, good idea, easier to handle," Ginny said approvingly.

Harry nodded. He frowned at the sink for a moment, then got a beaker off the shelf. He filled it with water and poured the water into the cauldron.

As expected, the salt dissolved. However, to their dismay, everything floated.

"Why are both the diamonds and the moissanite crystals floating?" Ginny wanted to know.

Harry shrugged… then snapped his fingers. He scooped up some water and tasted it. He made a face.

"It's salty, I know… Oh, of course," Ginny said. "Salt water is denser than fresh water. Diamonds will float in it. At least, when it's this salty."

They strained found a strainer in the equipment room and strained the remaining crystals from the salt water. Dropping them into a cauldron of fresh water proved to be the answer. The moissanite floated, the diamonds sank. It took them over an hour to finish sorting the diamonds from the moissanite, but at least they wouldn't have to come back for more of this.

"Not that I mind spending time with you," Ginny confided. "It's just that I can think of more entertaining things to do with you."

Harry smiled faintly.

"In fact," Ginny said. "Do you know where Snape put the potion that he splattered on you?"

Harry pointed to one of Snape's desk drawers.

"Excellent," Ginny said. She picked the lock and plucked out the only flask that was in there. "Snape must have been in too big a hurry to leave us to put it away properly, the git."

Harry looked worried.

"I know what I'm doing," Ginny said. "Hand me one of the unbroken vials. Never mind." She fished one from her pocket and deftly transferred some of the potion. Then she replaced the vial in Snape's drawer. "We'll find a way to deliver this to Snape so he can't prove it was us."

Harry grinned at her.

"In the meanwhile, we have twenty minutes until Snivellus gets here. Want to snog?"

Harry crossed his arms and gave her a stern look.

"Well, can't blame a girl for trying, can you?" Ginny asked.

Harry grinned and shook his head. Unexpectedly, he leaned forward and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

Ginny grinned to herself. She wondered if a really good prank on Snape would earn her a really good kiss.

It was worth a try.


End file.
